The present invention relates to configuring agent log-off reasons in connection with an automatic contact distribution (ACD) system.
ACD systems are typically used to distribute telephone calls and other customer contacts among a group of agents of an organization. In general, ACD systems may be used to distribute contacts under any of a number of different formats. For example, a contact may be a telephone call received from (or placed through) a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a contact may be a voice path based upon packet data transferred through a computer network such as the Internet using web telephony. Alternatively, a contact may be any communication such as an e-mail, a facsimile, a video, or a web-site inquiry received through the Internet, etc. Thus, ACD systems are transaction processing systems which can handle one or more of a wide variety of these contact types.
An organization can disseminate a single telephone number, URL or e-mail address, for example, to customers and to the public in general as a means of contacting the organization. As contacts are directed to the organization, for example from the PSTN or the Internet, the ACD system can direct the contacts to the organization""s agents based upon some algorithm. For example, where all agents are considered equal, the ACD may distribute a contact based on which agent has been idle the longest time. Of course, there are many other possible ways to select an agent, or a subgroup of agents from whom an available one will be selected.
The ACD system can be,provided with any number of routing mechanisms for establishing contact paths between agent stations and sources of contacts. In some systems, a path may be established through a circuit switched voice port, such as for calls from the PSTN. Another path may be a data link (such as over a Local Area Network (LAN)) such as, for example, for an e-mail received through a computer network such as the Internet.
Control of the switching and communications with a database and with an external network such as a PSTN may, for example, be accomplished generally as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,268,903 and 5,140,611, both to Jones et al. which are hereby incorporated by reference. Routing of contacts to agents may, for example, be accomplished generally as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,269 to Steinlicht, U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,581 to Baker et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,327 to Dezonno, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Some ACD systems will direct contacts only to agents who are xe2x80x9clogged-on.xe2x80x9d That is, the system will not direct a contact to an agent station, if there is no agent present to handle contacts. Of course, the system still may not direct a contact to an agent who is logged on because, for example, the agent may be occupied with another contact at a given time. However, the agent would not even be potentially eligible to receive contacts if not logged-on. Other ACD systems do not require prior log-on. For example, another type of ACD system, especially suitable for but not limited to wireless phone and pager systems, will notify all agent stations associated with an agent being sought, regardless of the agent""s log-on status. However, there still can be a logon/log-off procedure for management purposes.
An organization operating an ACD system needs the ability to track when and why its agents are logged-off. Therefore, it is desirable to have agents indicate a log-off reason which can be stored in conjunction with a record of the log-off. It is also desirable for agents to be able to indicate log-off reasons in a timely fashion.
One way to identify agent log-off reasons is to provide static log-off reasons such as Break, Lunch, EndDuty, Personal, Meeting, or Training, which can be displayed in a fixed order at an agent station in response to an agent log-off request. The agent can select one of the reasons provided for the information of a monitoring supervisor and for recording with a date/time entry. Another way is for the agent to enter a log-off reason code. There can be a system-wide log-off reason for each code.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, an organization operating an ACD system obtains greater flexibility to define any number of agent log-off reasons, which may be tailored to particular agents, or which may be configured for groups of agents or for system-wide application. In various embodiments, these custom-defined reasons may be displayed in text to an agent, may be incorporated in historical reports and in real-time displays for monitoring supervisors, and/or may be integrated with existing work force management programs. The log-off reason may be communicated directly from an agent station to the ACD system, or via another computer which also performs other functions. These custom-defined reasons may be changed at any time. In addition, the order in which the reasons appear for selection by an agent may be changed at any time. Such reordering may be effected in accordance with different algorithms designed to optimize the order (i.e., reordering so that a reason which is expected to be the most likely reason appears first, and so forth).
The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth below with particularity in the appended claims. The invention, together with further advantages thereof, may be understood by reference to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying figures, which illustrate some embodiments of the invention.